In twelve years as a fashion editor, I've been to dinners announcing the birth of a handbag, I've been to dinners celebrating the anniversary of a shoe. But last night was the first time I've been to a fashion dinner honouring feminism.

Jane Shepherdson, the CEO of Whistles and Alexis Kirschbaum, Editorial Director of Penguin books, co-hosted an 'Evening with Inspiring Women'. Eighty women from the fashion industry were invited to hear three women who have been highly successful in male-dominated careers talk about their experiences.

I was a fan of Whistles and Jane Shepherdson before but I love both even more now. Awesome women, lovely fashion friends, delicious food by Shacklewell Nights, and a going-home goodie bag stuffed with Penguin paperbacks: this was pretty much my idea of heaven. "I just think it's time to reclaim feminism," said Shepherdson as she table-hopped between courses. "We're all feminists in the Whistles office. And the great thing about running your own business is that you can do whatever you want. So we thought it was time to come out and celebrate feminism. I mean, how bad can the backlash be?"

She's joking about the backlash, but she is also making a point: fashion is led by and driven by women, and yet feminism is rarely mentioned. This is an industry full of women who are passionate about their careers, as well as about clothes: how nice, to celebrate that.

Sam Baker, Kathy Lette and Lulu Kennedy were among the women at the Whistles event Photograph: Dave Benett

The evening was inspired by Penguin's reissue of The Best Of Everything, the 1958 pre-feminist novel by Rona Jaffe about the first generation of career girls. The Best Of Everything has been described as 'Mad Men: the view from the typing pool'. (You could also, fliply, dub it 'Revolutionary Road: the view from Manhattan', or 'Sex and The City: back to the 1950s.' You get the idea.) "When Jaffe wrote the book, she thought she was writing a cautionary tale," says Shepherdson. "But it turned out women weren't easily put off having careers. They wanted the adventure."

The first speaker was Rosie Arnold, Deputy Executive Creative Director of BBH, one of the only women in advertising running a major creative department. Or as she put it, "When my kids ask me what I do I say, 'I am Don Draper.'" She talked about starting out in the 1980s, about being part of "the inbetweenie generation – none of my friends had a mother who worked" and about the unfairnesses of the office ("if a man puts a photo of his kids on his desk, he's a great family man; if a woman does the same, she's not concentrating"). Filmmaker Beeban Kidron told us about assisting Eve Arnold, about "taking loads of drugs" and the year she spent making Carry Greenham Home, her seminal film about Greenham Common (not all at the same time). Surgeon Captain Lynn Thomas, the highest ranking woman in the navy, talked about the practical problems of being a woman in a man's world, and a mother in a dangerous job, and gave Kathy Lette an opening to heckle se(a)men jokes.

Inspiring is a word made insipid through overuse, but this was the real deal. All three women were proud and humble, awesome and funny. Shepherdson hopes to repeat the idea, hosting women's dinners with female speakers for Whistles customers around the country, which would be fantastic. Best line of the night came from Rosie Arnold. Early in her career, a female boss gave her this advice, explaining why what matters is talent and hard work: "'The thing is, darling', she told me, 'that you can only sleep your way to the middle.'